Retro Gaming Australia

Nemesis is the first portable Gradius game, and the only one to use the original European name of the series worldwide. The game is a weird combination of elements from both Gradius and Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou. Like many of Konami’s early Game Boy efforts, a colour version was released as part of the Konami GB Collection series.

Body Harvest was meant to be one of Nintendo’s early, high profile releases for the Nintendo 64. However, clashes in the design of the game with developer DMA Design and massive delays saw them drop the project. It’s one of those “what could have been” moments, given that Body Harvest is a kind of progenitor to Grand Theft Auto III, albeit without the same level of detail and polish.

After the smashing success of Final Fantasy VII in the West, Squaresoft needed to strike while the iron was hot. With Final Fantasy VIII still months away, they threw whatever they could out there, which included Chocobo Racing. Fans were not impressed, due in large to the game’s lack of features and low difficulty.

Tape Worm is an early Snake variant which has you, as Slinky the Worm, eating beans. Unlike a real tapeworm, Slinky doesn’t appear to be a festering intestinal parasite originating from uncooked meat.

Before becoming the world’s greatest grill salesman, George Foreman was a two-time world heavyweight boxing champion. Foreman’s unlikely comeback, which saw him win his second title at age 45, was fodder for Acclaim to put him in a bunch of subpar boxing games, of which Foreman for Real was the last, and arguably the worst.

James Bond 007: The Duel was a run and gun platformer featuring Ian Fleming’s super spy that owes a lot to Namco’s Rolling Thunder, though it’s not nearly as good. I’m pretty sure the ad for the game marks Timothy Dalton’s last official appearance as Bond.

Dr Franken is an odd little adventure/platformer putting players in the role of Franky, a kinder, gentler version of the 1930s Universal incarnation of Frankenstein’s monster. Franky is on a quest to find the parts of his girlfriend, Bitsy, so he can reassemble her.

Taito’s Growl (or Runark in its original Japanese release) is a rather odd take on the arcade brawler, given that you essentially play as an forest ranger who deals with poachers with a mix of fisticuffs and explosives. The home port for the Mega Drive lost a bit of the luster of the arcade version, unfortunately.

College Slam was basically NBA Jam with NCAA teams, built on top of the existing NBA Jam architecture by Iguana Entertainment, who did the NBA Jam ports for home consoles. The game features most Division 1 college teams from the time.

The Terminator 2: Judgment Day arcade game was one of Midway’s finer shooters. The home versions were renamed to T2: The Arcade Game to differentiate them from the other (godawful) Terminator 2 games Acclaim had in development at the same time they were working on the arcade port. The truck level is still a bastard.